The New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-2 in Game 3 at Shea Stadium, in a game that should have been remembered for Rusty Staub hitting home runs in the 1st and 2nd innings.
Instead, it is remembered for 5-foot-11, 200-pound Pete Rose breaking up a double play by crashing into 5-foot-11, 140-pound Bud Harrelson, and then starting a fight with the much thinner man.
With the fight broken up, Rose returns to his position in left field, where Met fans (understandably angry, but they were hardly justified in their actions) start throwing things at him. Reds manager Sparky Anderson takes his team off the field, fearing for their safety.
The umpires get a message to Loren Matthews, the Shea public address announcer, who announces that if the throwing doesn't stop, the game will be forfeited. Remember, the series is tied 1-1 and the Mets, barring a total (or even, dare I say it, Metlike) collapse, have this game won, and need only 1 more win for the Pennant. Lose it, even by forfeit, and it will be the Reds who are just 1 game from the Pennant.
Desperate, Met manager Yogi Berra takes Tom Seaver and Willie Mays out there, and the 3 of them plead for peace. Listening to the 3 New York baseball legends, the fans stop, and the Mets finish off the win.
With the fight broken up, Rose returns to his position in left field, where Met fans (understandably angry, but they were hardly justified in their actions) start throwing things at him. Reds manager Sparky Anderson takes his team off the field, fearing for their safety.
The umpires get a message to Loren Matthews, the Shea public address announcer, who announces that if the throwing doesn't stop, the game will be forfeited. Remember, the series is tied 1-1 and the Mets, barring a total (or even, dare I say it, Metlike) collapse, have this game won, and need only 1 more win for the Pennant. Lose it, even by forfeit, and it will be the Reds who are just 1 game from the Pennant.
Desperate, Met manager Yogi Berra takes Tom Seaver and Willie Mays out there, and the 3 of them plead for peace. Listening to the 3 New York baseball legends, the fans stop, and the Mets finish off the win.
The next day, with a banner hanging from Shea's upper deck reading, "A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME STILL STINKS" -- I guess they weren't willing to say "Sucks" in public in 1973 -- Rose will make his point by winning the game and tying up the series with an extra-inning home run. But the Mets will win Game 5 and the Pennant.
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October 8, 1973 was a Monday. The American League Championship Series was on a travel day, with the Oakland Athletics and the Baltimore Orioles tied at 1 game apiece. The A's would beat the O's in 5 games, and then beat the Mets in the World Series.
The NBA season started the next day; the NHL and American Basketball Association seasons, the day after that. The World Hockey Association season had already begun, but it scheduled no games for this date.
And on ABC Monday Night Football, the Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys, 14-7 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.
If you've watched the superhero film X-Men: Days of Future Passed, you saw the villain Magneto (played as a younger man by Michael Fassbinder) rip RFK Stadium off its foundation in 1973, and move its circular form around the White House to block it off. As he begins this, the field is being lined for a baseball game. This means that, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Washington Senators did not move to become the Texas Rangers after the 1971 season; or D.C. got yet another new team to replace the "New Senators" after the "Old Senators" became the Minnesota Twins after the 1960 season.
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